Waiting by the window
by Al Evans
Summary: Once upon a time Mary Jane used to spend her nights waiting and worrying about her husband, the Amazing Spider-Man. But now that their daughter Mayday has followed in his footsteps, things have changed...
_This story takes place in the MC2 Universe in the Spider-Girl continuity_

* * *

Mary Jane was in that annoying moment between being asleep and beginning to wake up.

She'd been blissfully dreaming about when May was eight, playing with her first basketball in the back yard of their Forest Hills home. This being a dream, little Mayday had somehow leapt twenty feet into the air, scoring a slam dunk on the impossibly high basket. But as she'd delightedly run towards the applauding Mary Jane and Peter the ground between them had begun to split apart.

The chasm had opened further and further, and no matter how far they reached out, neither Peter nor MJ could get to May. Then, rising from the ground behind May like a corpse, came the Goblin; his neck thrown back in an awful cackling laugh. As he reached out for May, she'd screamed, Peter had yelled, and Mary Jane...had woken up.

It hadn't been like other times Mary Jane had experienced similar nightmares. She hadn't sat bolt upright in bed covered in sweat and yelling her head off. The truth was MJ had endured so many similar nights like this over the years that in her old age they didn't faze her as much. She'd simply woken up with a groan and groggily realized it had after all just been a dream. She hadn't given a second thought to simply turning her head on her pillow and going back to sleep.

Or rather, attempting to go back to sleep.

Having woken up even briefly, the gears in Mary Jane's mind began slowly turning and despite herself, she was unable to drift back off. She let her eyes flicker open and spotted the clock on her bed stand.

01:47 a.m.

She groaned again, begrudging how her attempt at an early night had been thwarted. It was only then that she registered that she felt oddly cooler than she should do. And the room was quieter too. She leaned up on her arm and looked over her shoulder. Peter wasn't in bed.

That hadn't been an uncommon sight during their marriage. Being Spider-Man had meant that frequently Peter had either gotten to bed late or left in the middle of the night for one reason or another. This however had changed when he'd retired from costumed crime fighting well over ten years ago following the loss of his leg.

Curious and concerned, Mary Jane got up and checked the bathroom. Finding no sign of Peter she pulled on her dressing gown and looked in May's room. He wasn't there either, nor was May for that matter.

She headed down stairs and slowly opened the door to the kitchen. The curtains of the windows facing out onto the back yard were drawn open letting in silvery moonlight. Mary Jane could see the basketball hoop casting a shadow into the kitchen and dividing the breakfast table across the middle. Staring out of the window on one side of this divide sat Peter, his hand resting on his walking stick.

"Tiger?" whispered MJ.

He turned around slowly, a look of mild surprise on his face.

"Oh, hi sweetheart."

"What are you doing up this late?" It was a mark of how tired MJ was that she had to ask this question at all.

"I'm just...I couldn't sleep."

The wheels began turning in MJ's sleepy head and she suddenly worked out what was happening.

"Are you waiting for May?"

Peter gave a small solemn nod. His face seemed calm but MJ had known Peter long enough to see the concern in his eyes, even in the dim light. She sighed and padded over to the kitchen. She brought back some glasses, handing one to Peter as she sat down next to him. Peter took a sip before standing up and stretching; evidently he'd been sitting there for a long while. They'd gone to bed around 22:00 but MJ guessed that he'd only been in bed for an hour or so.

"It's Saturday night Peter. When we gave her permission to 'join the family business' we said she could stay out a bit later on weekends."

"Yeah but this is cutting it close."

Peter sipped his water.

"You said it yourself when you began taking a more active hand with her. She's a natural. Maybe better than you were at her age. She knows not to get herself in over her head. She'll be fine."

Mary Jane hoped she sounded sufficiently convincing because these words had never fully stopped her from worrying either.

"I know. I know I just...I can't help but think what it was like for me and...I'm always scared MJ. Always."

MJ took a sip from her own glass.

"Peter, we've been scared ever since the day we found out I was pregnant."

Peter gave a tiny chuff through his nose at this. MJ understood it to mean that in some way she had made him feel better. For the longest time after that they remained silent, simply gazing out of the window.

"Was this what it was like for you?"

Mary Jane blinked. The question had been so unexpected in the middle of the silence she hadn't quite registered it.

"What do you mean?"

Peter turned to look down into her eyes. MJ could see the subtle apprehension in his face.

"Staying up night after night. Worried sick that I might..." He closed his eyes and gripped his glass a little tighter for a moment. "How did you do it? All those years after we got married? Even before that? How could you cope with...with this?" He inclined his head slightly towards the window.

MJ considered the question for a few seconds and then just shrugged.

"...I tried most nights not to think about it, especially before I told you I knew. After that it became...tougher..." A steely expression came over MJ's face as she looked back at Peter. She saw the sad guilt flicker through him and felt bad. Nevertheless, she remained silent and didn't look away. At least not until Peter broke their gaze and peered down into his glass.

"...I'm sorry...I'm sorry for putting you through that...through this."

Mary Jane placed her glass on the table and stood up, putting her hand atop of Peter's on his cane.

"I knew what I was getting into. I even knew what might happen when we had May."

Peter looked back up into her face.

"I dunno if I would've married you if I'd known what this was like." His voice was shaking ever so slightly. MJ stroked his face with her other hand.

"You knew enough. Deep down so did I for the longest time. I kept telling myself you and me couldn't work because I couldn't live with the fear of what might happen to you. The truth was I had been living with it for a long time. I was really just scared of...well..."

"...Of ending up like your Mom?"

MJ's eyes narrowed a little as she nodded.

"...Yeah...But I'm _not_ like her. Or like Gayle." She felt Peter's hand tense on the cane. Then the steely look came over her face again. "And you aren't like my father either Peter."

Mary Jane saw the corners of Peter's mouth twinge in a smile he decided not to follow through on. MJ let go of his hand after that and they stood together watching the skies out the window for a few more minutes. Peter was still staring outwards towards the skies when he broke the silence once more.

"Maybe...maybe we should try to talk her out of this again?"

Mary Jane waited until she'd picked her glass back up and taken a sip to reply.

"I never tried to talk _you_ out of it."

Peter wore a look of mild disbelief.

"That's not exactly true."

MJ arched an eyebrow.

"Sure it is. I might've told you to take a break from time to time but I never asked you to outright quit."

Peter seemed a little taken aback by this. For a moment or two he said nothing and MJ suspected he was racking his memories to verify this.

"...Well...okay...but this is different. _I_ knew what I was doing."

MJ shot him a brief condescending look before regaining her serene composure.

"Not at her age you didn't. Come to think of it..." She tilted her head in a mock inquisitive fashion. "I seem to recall you were still learning a thing or two even after college." She kept her eyes on Peter whilst taking yet another sip from her glass.

"I thought you didn't want her to go into the family business." Peter's voice was a little cold when he said this. It gave MJ pause to consider her next words a little more carefully.

"...When all is said and done...no I don't...But we also can't do anything to stop her."

Peter's expression softened at this. There was sadness there, maybe even a little desperation. MJ adopted a consoling demeanour and was suddenly hit with memories of Aunt May.

"Tiger...we burned all the stuff from that part of your life after May got her powers. She just went out there in a leotard and ski mask. _Then_ she made a suit of her own." She shrugged. "Whatever we do she'd find a way to ...well...be who we raised her to be."

Peter gave a chuff of laughter.

"I guess we did too good of a job."

"Seems so." Mary Jane smiled warmly. She drained the remains of her glass and put it in the sink. "You coming up?" She asked.

Peter's looked down at his own glass for a second and before turning back to the window.

"...I think I'll wait just a little while longer." He sat back down at the table and gave a little upwards nod. "You go on ahead."

But MJ did not leave. Instead she gently moved her chair around to Peter's side of the table and sat down, linking her arm in his. Together they stared off out the window and into the sky, hoping soon to see a lithe silhouette swinging towards them amidst moonlight.


End file.
